Work Duties and Assignments

I know many of you are interested about my work duties and assignments for this school, so I thought I would update you on that.

My work duties these three months actually consist of two jobs. My first job is child care every Monday morning. I get to work with the toddlers and we do crafts, play on the playground, etc. while the parents are in a staff meeting. My second job is kitchen crew leader every other weekend. Every other weekend my crew and I (there are four of us total) are responsible for making all meals, cleaning the kitchen after every meal, cleaning the dining area, and washing and drying all dish towels that are used. We cook for an average of 40 people each weekend, and Sunday's lunch is our biggest meal. Last weekend we had pot roast for lunch on Sunday and it required that it was in the convection oven by 6:30am - luckily for me the new convection ovens for the kitchen had just come in the day before and were installed, or I would have had to put the pot roast in the old ovens at 4:30am (we have problems with the temperature of the old ovens being off by 100 degrees from time to time). I am definitely not my mother when it comes to cooking, but I am enjoying being in the kitchen and trying new things.

Well, my assignments this semester have definitely been keeping me busy. Here is a look at the different things that we are required to do:

Book Reports - we are required to read the following books and to turn in a book report on them every other week. The books are: A Tale of Three Kings by J. Oswald Sanders, Teaching to Change Lives by Howard Hendricks, The Shack by William Young, and a book of my choice.

Spiritual Leadership book by J. Oswald Sanders - we are required to read 3-4 chapters of this book every other week and do study questions at the end of the chapters.

Cast of Characters by Max Lucado - we are required to read 2 chapters every week and to be prepared to participate in a small group discussion of the chapters on Wednesdays with the class. We are also required to facilitate the small group discussion at least twice.

Memory Verses - we are challenged to learn passages of scripture and to "store them in our heart". Every other week we are tested on the memory of the following scriptures: Matthew 20:25-28, Colossians 3:12-17, Phillipians 2:5-11, and Ephesians 4:1-6.

Projects - we are required to do 3 projects during this school. The first project is leading a corporate intercession time. For this project we are placed in groups of 3 and required to research places in the world where the gospel is not being preached. Then we present the information to the YWAM community during worship time on a Friday and then corporately spend an hour in prayer for the different needs of this country. My group is researching Dayr az-Zawr, Syria. The second project is planning an outreach. We start this project this week, and we will be partnered with a classmate and will be required to plan a outreach, just like the outreach I went on to Colombia. The third project is called Holy Discontent. This project is done individually and is to open your eyes to the things of this world that burden you and spur you on to find a way to help. For example, if someone is burdened by child sex trafficing that occurs in Asia, they would do their project on the subject and how they can get involved in changing the statistics and preventing other children from being sold into this industry.

Sometimes I look at all of the assignments and think it is a lot, but I am learning so much and am challenged everyday. I am blessed to have this opportunity and am taking every chance I can to soak up all that God has for me through this time. Thank you again for your support of me through this season.

God Bless.

Phase 2 Leadership School

Hey everyone! Well, I realize this post is more than a week overdue, so I will do my best to update you on the past two weeks.

The new quarter for schools started on Monday, March 30th, and this time there are two schools running at the same time (Phase 2 and the Multi-Cultural DTS). Both schools are being housed at the main campus in Arvada, and the campus is located across the street from a grocery store, some coffee shops, the church I attend here, and is within walking distance of many other places. While I did enjoy being at the mountain campus during DTS, it is nice to be at the main campus this quarter.

For those of you wondering about the two schools, I am in the Phase 2, which is a leadership school, and we have 13 students (9 ladies and 4 guys). The other school, the Multi-Cultural DTS, is the same school that I just completed in February, except this time the emphasis is more on representing multiple countries with the students. So, in that school there are 16 students (8 ladies and 8 guys), and they represent 6 or 7 different countries.

Our first week was spent bonding with our classmates and our school staff, as well as a few opportunities to bond with the Multi-Cultural students and the non-school staff (those that work in the accounting department, etc.). At the end of the week my class took a field trip to Boulder, where we did a picture scanvenger hunt, and we ended the day with a group photo.

This week, week two, has been spent with Dan Thoemke, a Pastor from Hillside Church in Golden, Colorado, speaking to us about Spiritual Leadership based on the book of Esther. I honestly can say that I never looked at the book of Esther before as a place to see Spiritual Leadership until this week, but it has been an amazing eye opening experience. We also started out the week with an amazing opportunity as a class that no other Phase 2 has had before.......we had a baptism of 4 of my classmates. Chrissy, a student from Germany admitted in class on Monday that she had never been baptized and really felt it was time to make that commitment. Three of the guys (Marcelo, Scott, and Josiah) all had been baptized before, but they all had made the decision to do it because their friends were doing it, so they wanted to do it this time as an act of obedience and as a representation of the transformation God had made in their lives. It was a really neat bonding experience for us as a class.

Looking forward to updating you again next week on what I am learning in class. I just wanted to say thank you again to all of you for following me on this journey, and for being a part of it with your support and prayers. I feel blessed to know each of you.

Also, for information sake, this time I do have cell phone service since we are at the main campus, and we are 2 hours behind Eastern Standard time. And my mailing address this quarter is:
Name
YWAM Denver
Spring Phase 2
12750 W. 63rd Ave
Arvada, CO 80004

God bless you and may His face shine upon you!

Preparing to Leave Again

Hey everyone! It was great getting to see many of you during my break between schools, and again I cannot thank you enough for your loving support of me.

So, it seems like the past six weeks have flown by. I am just spending the next three days packing and doing the little things that need to get done before heading back out to Colorado. I heard from some friends in Colorado that they had a blizzard today with 8-12" of snow. So, while I guess I have gotten used to the sunshine these past few weeks, I may have a few more weeks of cold weather ahead of me.

Once back in Colorado I plan on resuming updating this blog weekly on what I am learning in school. And I will also update you on China when more of those details surface.

God Bless.

Back In Georgia, Soon to be in Florida

Hey everyone! Well, I am officially back in Gainesville, GA for a few days before heading down to Cape Coral, FL for two and a half weeks. I am here in Gainesville until the morning of March 1, and will be back again from March 19 until the 30th. So, for those of you in Cape Coral, I hope to see you sometime between March 2 and the 19th!!!

Well, to let you all know my future plans. While in DTS God revealed to me two specific things that He desires for me to do in the next several months. The first thing was for me to go back to YWAM Denver and to complete a secondary school called Phase 2. Phase 2 is a leadership school that prepares you to lead in any aspect of ministry that God may lead you into, as well as, it is a required school for anyone desiring to become staff at YWAM Denver. Phase 2 is a three month school that will be from March 30 - June 19. There is an optional outreach for Phase 2 students; however, I do not feel that God is asking me to do the outreach at this time. The second thing that God revealed was His desire to send me to China sometime after completing Phase 2. There is currently a group of married couples and singles who are in China doing work (coffeehouses, workshops, etc.) and sports camps as a way of ministering. They are also currently working on ways of getting teachers into the university as a means of opening up doors for clubs, etc. One of the married couples (and also the ones leading the group in China) will be in Denver next month to have their second child, so while they are in the States, I will be sitting down with them and openly discussing with them all the things that cannot be discussed in an email. After that point I will be able to share with you more details of what the need in China is, and how I will be able to help this group. It's not a coincidence, though, that God laid on my heart to contact this couple while in I was in Colombia considering I only knew their names and where they were in China. And then to get back to Denver and find out their association and what type of work they are doing was unbelievable. Not to mention that one of my classmates' sister and brother-in-law are one of the married couples on this team. Small world, huh? No, that's just God!!

Well, I know that was a lot to give you in a short updated post, but hopefully I will be able to speak to many of you in person and share more about each of these next phases of my journey.

I have also posted pictures from Colombia for you to enjoy and they are in several different categories (food, places we stayed, etc.). Remember to click on the sunset on the right side of the page to access the pictures.

God Bless and hope to see many of you soon.

Coming Back to the States

Hey everyone! So ministry is officially over for us in Colombia. We did our last church service last night, and have had our debrief sessions (time of discussing strengths and things done well during outreach) with our leaders today. I know I personally have had a great time here these past seven weeks. It has been kinda hard leaving the friends we have made at each place, but we know that we have fulfilled all that God had for us here.

I am definitely looking forward to getting back to the states and enjoying the food there. The food here has not been bad, just sometimes lacking flavor. And I probably will pass on rice for awhile considering I have had it for every meal since being here. What I will miss though is the bread and pastries the most. I don´t know anywhere else that you can find a loaf of cheese bread for $1, and pastries for $0.10. And it was nice too that there was a bakery practically on every corner.

Well, the Argentina and Mexico teams leave tomorrow (a day ahead of us) to return to the states, so it will be a nice reunion of the entire DTS on Saturday night when we arrive. Sunday morning our team will be returning to our assistant leaders´church to do a follow-up service for them, going out to lunch as a team, and then doing the necessary laundry that has been building up. And then Monday - Thursday will be spent in a classroom discussing how to acclimate back into your own culture after being gone, sharing with the current DTS (that started after we left for outreach) our experiences, and then graduation on Friday. So a full, but somewhat relaxed week too.

I look forward to updating you in the next week or so of my future plans after DTS, as well as the times that I will be in Georgia and Florida visiting.

God Bless and keep on persevering.